You open WeChat dozens of times every day, but you may have never considered that an instant messaging software can have such a design. The app we are talking about today has no news content, no hype, and was developed by a non-profit company. However, its exquisite ideas hidden in the details, everyone who has used it said that they will never go back to the past.
Privacy is not a slogan but a code
In the private chat mode, it is not uncommon for messages to disappear after reading, but it will clearly inform you that it is a situation where "the other party has completed the screenshot operation." It is not an attempt to prevent screenshots , but it is to let you know clearly that the other party has taken a screenshot. After the 6.2 version update in early 2026, the delay time generated during screenshot detection has been significantly reduced from the original 1.8 seconds to 0.3 seconds, almost reaching real-time.
What's even more critical is that end-to-end encryption does not go through the server. When you pass the sentence "Contract changes to third clause" in a coffee shop in Lujiazui, Shanghai, and the other party receives the sentence in Shenzhen Kexing Science Park, no machine has stored this message during this period. This isn't a feature, it's a promise.
The background gallery hides product values
The background color of WeChat is white by default. It has 10 built-in backgrounds, but the quality varies. It also has 87 built-in background images, all of which are manually color-adjusted by a dedicated design team in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The 20 newly added background images in 2025 are also adapted to the power-saving characteristics of the OLED screen.
A user in Beijing left a message on Minority, saying that when his girlfriend changed the background, she did not use the photo she took as the background because the built-in pictures were really beautiful. To be clear, this is not a scripted joke. The product manager builds the element of aesthetics into a basic condition that can support the operation of related things. In this way, users do not need to use private photos to cover up their possible shortcomings.
The voice bar can drag the progress
The 2025 WeChat annual report shows that users receive 120 million ultra-long voices every day. Yet you still have to hear from the beginning to the end. It already supports dragging the progress bar in 2019. It’s up to you to decide at which second you start listening.
The lack of an earpiece mode is its only shortcoming. In December last year, on 16personalitiesChinese , the author was in the waiting area of Hangzhou East Bus Station. When I clicked on a 60-second voice message, the surrounding area was extremely quiet, but the amplifier suddenly exploded. This situation is really not comparable to the situation of WeChat in this aspect. I hope it can be made up for within 2026.
Sliding back is the bottom line of feel
WeChat has not implemented the interaction that has been implemented since iOS 9. It supports sliding return on all platforms. In the iOS version, sliding from the left edge of the screen to the right has the same feel as system-level return.
This is not a so-called black technology, but a matter of willingness to spend time adjusting parameters. In 2025, its Android version completed the adaptation of side sliding gestures from several manufacturers, such as Xiaomi, OPPO and other 6 manufacturers. The delay is controlled within 16 milliseconds. When you are on the subway and reply to a message with one hand, you do not need to reach for the punctuation mark in the upper left corner to exit the chat operation.
The media library is for retrieval, not circumvention
If you look through the WeChat chat pictures by month, your fingers will ache with thousands of pictures. It has a Media category in the chat messages, such as pictures, files and links, all classified separately. In 2025, filtering dimensions will also be added, which can be selected by the sender, 16personalitiesChinese can be selected by time range, and can also be selected by file type.
Click on a single photo, and what’s even more detailed is the label “From Li Ming·2026-02-10 19:23” in the lower right corner. No need to guess who sent it, just find a screenshot from half a year ago to do this. This is called searching, not flipping through a photo album.
Targeted replies can jump to positioning
Someone asks in the group chat "Where is the location of the data mentioned last time", and you reply "I will look it up". After three months, new members enter the group chat and click on those three words, and the interface will jump directly to the location of the original words and appear highlighted. There is also a button in the lower right corner of the screen that can be clicked to return to the current progress.
WeChat launched quote replies in 2025, but it was unable to achieve cross-time positioning. It had already completed the work as early as 2020. It was not because of technical difficulties, but because of whether it had thought about it.
The notification is so detailed that you can adjust the LED color
Its one-to-one notifications can be set to vibrate, ring tones, and pop-up window styles respectively, and the same is true for group chat notifications. What’s even more surprising is that the version released in February 2026 supports customizing the LED light color of some Android models: when the boss sends a message, it lights up red, when the girlfriend sends a message, it lights up purple, and when the work group message lights up, it lights up white.
It gives you options, but you may not always be able to use them. In contrast, WeChat's notification status either turns all notifications on or turns off all notifications. Product managers in Shenzhen may think that no one has a need for this, but programmers in Wangjing area of Beijing will indeed set their work groups to silent mode and no lights in the dark of night.
The entire platform is more than just “usable”
It supports Windows, macOS, Linux, and even Kirin OS. The Linux ARM version will be released in September 2025, and it runs as smoothly on the Raspberry Pi 5 as on the MacBook. Until now, the Mac version of WeChat has to drag twice to post a picture, while the Linux version has stopped updating long ago.
It's not open source, it's just a gimmick. There is a middle school in Germany that used its open source code to carry out secondary development and create a school communication system. By 2025, it has saved 37,000 euros in licensing fees. This is not a so-called sentiment, but a clear account book that reflects the real situation.
The official website is the face of the product
Open weixin.com, and the full screen will be filled with download QR codes and promotional advertisements. Open its official website. The homepage displays product concepts, update logs, and open source warehouses. After the revision in January 2026, even the accompanying pictures have a solid background color with text attached, without any animations to interfere.
The official website reflects the company’s temperament. One wants to sell goods, the other wants to have a conversation.
So back to the question I asked at the beginning: How do you choose between big and comprehensive or small and beautiful? Is there an application on your phone that doesn’t have many application functions, but you just can’t bear to delete it? Communicate and discuss with each other in the comment area.
